Dork Stitch

Monday, May 15, 2017

Hello! Over the weekend, I went to see Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2, which inspired me to dust off my sprite patterns and see if I could add a few to make a Marvel sampler I'd been thinking about a while ago. That proved to be no good. I quickly realized that, thanks to the total lack of enthusiasm that I had for a while, I hadn't updated the Marvel pattern set since Age of Ultron. This means that I have to make a ridiculous amount of patterns to get caught up.

Realistically, I know that I could do this pretty efficiently. The four big characters I'd need to catch up would be Ant Man, Black Panther, Spider-Man, and Doctor Strange, which would be manageable. It would also not be a lot of fun, especially on a blog where I have not yet dealt with Agent Carter's cool 1940s hats or Thor's roommate.

For tonight, though, I am going to post the last two Age of Ultron patterns that I was just too uninterested in everything to post before. Here are the sprite patterns for War Machine and Vision, years late. When I was looking at these again tonight, I'm actually pretty happy with them. Neither of them is too detail intensive, so they should be quick to stitch, even for sprite patterns. I hope someone out there likes them!

I am actually hoping to be back with more patterns very soon, but am not sure. I've finished a couple of cross stitches, too, so maybe I'll post those, too. Until then, have a nice day, and good luck with whatever crafts you're working on!

Sunday, March 26, 2017

Hello! I am on spring break right now, which has started with a lot of rain and 40 degree temperatures! Because of that, I have been doing a lot of crafts and, because I know how to take advantage of my surroundings properly, watching blocks of 90s J-pop videos on cable TV. It had been a while since I cross stitched a lot, but yesterday, I was at the point where I had four projects started next to me, none of which I actually wanted to work on at the moment. Rather than being practical and just doing one of them, anyway, I started digging around video game sprite websites for my next project.

I was originally going to make one of the needlessly elaborate NPCs from The World Ends With You, because they have neat clothes and use way too many floss colors, but as I looked around, I remembered the existence of Titenic, a bootleg Famicom beat-em-up based on the movie Titanic. I have played it, and it is a bad game. Rather than making any progress, I usually get stuck in the first level. This doesn't bother me too much, because I am easily enough amused that it pleases me just to make an 8-bit Kate Winslet kick rats, but it's not something I can play for hours. I really like the sprites in the game, though, since they really have a nice NES look, but are also decently elaborate, so I decided it was time to cross stitch them.

I found the sprites from Titenic on the always nifty Spriters Resource, and though I do like the fighting maid/waitress and battle rats, I stuck to making charts for Rose and Jack. I do not really think anyone will make these, but formatted the patterns for my blog anyway, using colors as true to the game as I could get. Since these are for a project I'm currently stitching, neither of these is a battle pose (Rose's is a victory pose, and Jack's is from his idling animation), and Jack's sprite is horizontally flipped. I am not sure either of those is a big problem, though, so here are the relatively small and simple patterns!

I started working on stitching these last night, but am using more subdued colors than in the game, at least for Rose. Because these sprites are three colors each, it's really easy to modify them to use whatever colors you want. I realize I am missing a lot of opportunities by not stitching these in lime green and purple, with some hunter orange highlights, but maybe someday. Anyway, here is the portion of Rose's skirt I stitched last night. It is thrilling.

This is all I have for today, but I will probably post again the next time I finish a project! I think it'll be this one, but am not sure. Have a nice day, and good luck with whatever crafts you might be doing!

Thursday, March 16, 2017

Hello! I still have not been posting lately, even though I did put up a pattern in December. Over the summer, I moved to Japan to teach English at a junior high school, and before that, I was finishing an MA in history, so I was not making many patterns. In the last few months, I really have done a lot of cross stitch stuff, but haven't been too enthusiastic about posting it.

Tonight, however, I decided to post here for two reasons. First, I'm excited about making some of the Marvel patterns that Gatchacaz just posted on her blog, filled with dreams of covering my apartment wall with the logos of fake companies. I made some giant robot anime patterns in pursuit of this goal for myself, but upon seeing Gatchacaz's S.H.I.E.L.D. pattern, it all came together for me. I don't want it to look too insane when I start going nuts with all that, so this is a stopgap post before that.

Second, I want to stay awake long enough to watch Fox Japan's simulcast of Legion, so I've gotta keep myself busy until 11. This'll take care of that for at least a few minutes.

Since getting to Japan, I've finished three fairly big cross stitch projects, so I'm using this post to show these off. This first one, because I am focused on doing traditional stitching projects, is a recoloring of some sprites from the Game.com port of Fighter's Megamix, featuring Candy from Fighting Vipers and Pai from Virtua Fighter. I started this before I got my hands on any nice materials, so the monochrome sprites were a necessity, as was doing them in color, since I didn't have enough grays on hand. The fabric I used was kind of ratty, too, since I'd packed it with a different project started on it, then ripped it out to do this. I like how it turned out, though, and it was fun to play around with the gradients in the three color sprites.

After that, I used some floss and fabric that my mom sent me for Christmas to do a cross stitch of Ash Crimson, using a modified version of his sprite from King of Fighters XII and XIII. I actually posted this pattern here when I made it, so I don't have too much to say about it. I'm really happy with how it came out, though! I even found a nice frame for it at a local thrift store.

My last project photo for tonight is one I finished this week. I went to Akihabara when I bought a 3DS to see how many Streetpasses I could get, because I am cool, sophisticated, and practical. (I got a lot of Streetpasses, so I did not learn any sort of lesson from this.) Before I took off for a less crowded area, though, I saw a cool 8-bit style Love Live! School Idol Project clear file, or fancy plastic folder, there, and thought that if I bought it, it would make an excellent cross stitch pattern. I did buy it, and it made an okay cross stitch pattern, though I probably should have stitched it on 14-count fabric instead of 11-count, and I should have waited until I could get a few more colors to stitch it, too. Still, here it is, pictured with the folder that I used as a chart.

With these three photos posted, I don't have much else for tonight, so I will leave my blog for now. I would like to post a little more regularly, but feel like I don't have much to say, too. I will keep stitching, though, and might post some of the weird patterns I have stashed. I hope all of you are doing well with your crafts, too. Have a nice day!

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Hello! I haven't posted here in over a year, so this is probably weird and not very appropriate, but I got some new cross stitch supplies for Christmas and was looking at monochrome charts to try to make something fancy. The old fashioned ones were very nice, but I felt like I would have more fun stitching them if they were of characters from fighting games, so I looked at some sprites from King of Fighters XIII, picked one, and sat around messing with it like I did with the Wind Waker stuff until I had a pattern I liked. I think it came out really well, so I wanted to post it. I'm not sure anyone else will be excited to have a monochrome cross stitch pattern of Ash Crimson from King of Fighters XIII, but I, myself am hoping to start stitching this tonight. I hope someone reading this likes it, too!

I don't have very much time right now, so I can't post too much at the moment, but I finished a cross stitch of Pai and Honey from the Game.com version of Fighter's Megamix that I want to show off at some point. I don't have any well-formatted patterns in reserve, though, so I don't know if I'll post another pattern any time very soon.

Anyway, I hope people are doing well and having fun with their crafts!

Thursday, December 24, 2015

Hello! Today, I am trying to avoid another 1:50 am post, because that kind of sucked, but also posting a new pattern that I made this morning and am very excited about. Earlier this week, I went to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and thought that maybe I could get away with posting some sprite patterns from that here. I know that Star Wars is universally hated, so this is a big risk I'm taking, but really, it can't go over half as badly as the lose-10-followers pattern of Tai from Digimon.

Anyway, for today, I've made a pattern of BB-8, because it is a cute little robot that rolls around and beeps, and I want to get out a piece of perforated plastic canvas and make a stack of them in different colors and put them all over the place. This is a small and very easy pattern to stitch, and the biggest problem is that it's slightly off scale from the sprite pattern people that I've made. I didn't figure that actually mattered, though, so here is the pattern!

Now that I have posted that, I am done for today! Merry Christmas Eve! I should be back with another pattern tomorrow!

Hello! I slept badly last night, got up, went to work, drove two hours in crazy wind, and then played a lot of board games, so I am late. Have a sprite pattern of Mystique from X-Men! I found it amusing to make this. There's certainly not a lot of clothing detail here.

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Hello! Today has been a pretty good day. I am doing my laundry, eating curry chicken wings, and later, I was lucky enough to find a local theater playing this small indie movie called Star Wars, so I think I'm going to go see that. Plus, last night we did a roommate Christmas gift exchange, which sounds normal enough, I'm sure. The thing is, we started it at 1:00am, so we were all a bit tired and loopy. One of my roommates both of us other roommates these lovely pen sets from Korea, and had us both test every pen. The red pen in my set didn't work, even after tons of scribbling, so she did the only reasonable thing, which was to grab a grill lighter, get the flame going, and stick the pen's tip in the fire. After a few seconds of, "I burned it... I burned the pen," as I thought, "yes, that is the thing that happens when you put a pen in fire," we tested it, and this made the pen work. It was a true Christmas miracle.

Anyway, for today, I have a sprite pattern of Hayato from Project Justice/Rival Schools. If you care about that, it will be easy to stitch, because his character design is not very complicated. If you don't, I'll have something different tomorrow.

Monday, December 21, 2015

Hello! Thanks for all the comments yesterday! I appreciate it. I'm not upset about losing followers, but I'm confused about it, more than anything. Anyway, today I have another of the Kingdom Hearts patterns that someone requested a while back. This one is of someone named Terra, and he has really intense bell bottoms. This pattern also has a really high color count, so it might be a pain to make, but for those of you who like the character and game, I hope it's good!

I'm done posting for today, but will come up with something else for tomorrow. Have a good night!

Sunday, December 20, 2015

Hello! I lost 10 followers last night, but don't feel like Tai was particularly controversial, so I think I'm going to blame Google for this one. Anyway, today I have a pattern of Sora, also from Digimon, that I'm really happy with. Judging by the quality of this pattern compared to yesterday's, I should lose about 20 or 30 followers before my next post. Blogger is confusing.

There is a pattern for today! I'll be back with something else tomorrow! Until then, have a nice night!

Saturday, December 19, 2015

Hello! I am not getting ahead on patterns very well this month, but today am starting a new pattern set! For a long time, I have wanted to make Digimon sprite patterns, but felt that it would take a high level of skill at sprite patterns to get the giant hair and weird clothes right. I am still not sure I'm quite ready to work on this, but today, am starting with a pattern of Tai, from the first season of Digimon. I don't see the hair getting more intense than this, and if you do want to make this for yourself as a standee, it might be a challenge to stop him from tipping over. I think it came out okay, though, so here is the pattern!

I am going to take my inhaler and eat snacks, because Saturdays are wild around here. I'll be back with probably more Digimon tomorrow!